ntfs.sys missing or corrupt

Question

OK I will try to keep the saga brief.  The PC is a:       Dell Dimension 9100       Windows XP Pro SP2       160 GB Seagate drives set to Raid 1 with the Bios      The PC was booting when city power went out.  Since then the PC has not booted successfully from the hard drives with a Ntfs.sys file missing or corrupt.  I can boot with a Dell WinXP Pro SP2 boot disk.  I have tried replacing the ntfs.sys file with no change.  Replacing the memory does not help either.   I ran checkdisk /r and recovered half a dozen files.  The hard disks passed the hard disk test on the boot CD.  I am in the process of running the diagnostic utility on the boot CD for the memory and hard disks.  It has passed the memory tests as I write.   At this point it appears I either have a corrupted Windows install or a bad hardisk.  Regardless I would like to backup my data before I proceed as I have been a bad boy about backups.   I was thinking I would break the mirrored set and do the rebuild on one drive.  Could I then recover the data from the other drive before remirroring?   From the boot CD all the directories, except Windows, on the C:\ drive give me an Access Denied error?  This is true for a change directory or a copy command.  Will this be the same after I rebuild?!    Does anyone have any better ideas or suggestions?  I thought of a 3rd drive but I cannot copy without the rebuild.

tgsmith · Answer

Newwildhair,   First, review this Microsoft link on how to repair a missing ntfs.sys file:    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822800.  Is this the method you used to replace the file?   One way of doing a third drive recovery would be to create a Bart's PE or UBCD for Windows bootable CD.  Since the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows is based on Bart's PE, I recommend you go to www.ubcd4win.com and take a look at how you create and use the UBCD for Windows.   since you are using a Raid array, you will probably need to load the F6 driver when prompted.   I just used my UBCD for Windows to recover data from a client's corrupt Dell 8100 hard drive.  I booted from a CD drive and used Deepburner to copy 10.3Gb of documents, music and data files to 3 DVD-R disks on an attached DVD R/W drive.  I have also used UBCD to copy photos, tax records and legal documents to USB flash drives.   The method I have described might be safer than breaking the mirror.  I have done that before and that can be a little tricky.  See this Intel article:    http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-022836.htm.   Hope this info helps.   Tony

newwildhair · Answer

Yes that is the method I used to try and replace ntfs.sys.    Since my post and your response I tried a few other things while I was researching breaking the raid array.  It made me nervous to.   Another chekdsk /r has allowed me to boot the PC.  Yeah.  I am in the process of backing up my data.     Then I will do a restore of the Windows install as each reboot generates an auto check disk before reboot can complete.  I believe my preferred order will be 1.  XP restore point from within Windows 2.  Restore to Dell initial install via ctril+F11 at boot. 3.  As a last resort rebuild Windows.    Do you have a better suggestion to cleanup my clearly messed up Windows install.     Thanks

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